The Music Banter Members' Journals Monthly Update Thread

[Pet_Sounds]

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

If I told you which one it was it would take all the fun out of not knowing.

Well, I just skimmed through your journal and couldn't figure out which one it was (assuming it's in your journal).

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

Or you could just bull**** it.
I reviewed an album I'd never even heard and nobody noticed.
In fact some people agreed with me.

Course you could. But I'm not talking about one album, I'm talking about reviewing the entire history of a genre. Could I bull**** my way through a history of jazz, or punk, or hip-hop? And neither could you. You'll get away with that in small doses, if you want to, but not over a year's worth or more of reviewing. That's the point I'm making.

Hope you're feeling better by the way...

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

Or you could just bull**** it.
I reviewed an album I'd never even heard and nobody noticed.
In fact some people agreed with me.

How in-depth did you go?

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by The Batlord

How in-depth did you go?

Surely that's a very personal question....?

[Neapolitan]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I see where US is coming from though. Batty could write a great extreme metal journal, as he's very well versed in that subgenre. Pet_Sounds does a great folk journal, and if anyone could do a prog journal I would think it would be Ant, or Big Ears, who is now gone. I could have tried, but though Prog is my first love, there are bands --- big bands like ELP, Yes and Camel --- that I either don't like or don't know enough about. I think what US is saying is that to write a journal of "Pounding Decibels" depth, you need to have a very intimate knowledge of ALL the bands, big and small, who make or made up your chosen genre. If you're not fully confident that you know your subject it's difficult to start writing a history of it. You also need to know all the details behind both the bands and the music scene at the time, something US is almost unparalleled in in his journal.

Well I am almost unparalleled in my lack of knowledge for the bands I write about. I guess I am the photo-negative of Unkown Soldier. I should change the name My lo-fi journal to My Low-Information Journal.

[Unknown Soldier]

Originally Posted by Neapolitan

Well I am almost unparalleled in my lack of knowledge for the bands I write about. I guess I am the photo-negative of Unkown Soldier. I should change the name My lo-fi journal to My Low-Information Journal.

You're actually much smarter than you give yourself credit for

[Trollheart]

Getting closer to Christmas, and everyone's getting in on the fun with Christmas themed ... oh no wait. Nobody is, except Ki and myself. Hmm. Do you guys and guyesses need a visit from three ghosts in the night? Cos I know some guys...

Be there Christmas cheer down in Journal Town or not, everyone's emulating Santa's elves and busily working away to make their journal the perfect Christmas present to go under your ... okay, I'm done making Christmas puns and references now. Let's see what's movin' and shakin' down the many roads that lead to Journal Town...

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ravaganza.html sails on, where Anteater introduces us to someone we probably don't know, but we sure know the songs he's written! Yeah, Steve Kipner may not be a name that leaps easily to mind, but look at the hits he's penned! No, not here! Go get piped aboard and Ant will see you right. Speaking of things penned, I'm not sure whether these pieces of prose before the music are Ant's own writings or quoted from somewhere, but they really set the tone as he heads into music from a band called Lake. No, not with Emerson and Palmer!

Batty's paying tribute to his favourite girl with a Harley Quinn special, so http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-oblivion.html

Briks is warning us about a Sonata Arctica album whose title he wishes was all that was on the album in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...seur-cave.html
while
“Aqualung” is featured in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...rly-years.html. Whaddya mean, who's it by? Get out of here you! Go on! Scat! The nerve of some people.... Also another stone-cold classic in “Led Zeppelin IV”. And looking into a certain three gentlemen from Texas with one of their seminal albums.

Totally new journal from a totally new member (I mean like, with two posts as of writing this!) as Chascoso opens http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-journal.html. We'll be watching...

Moving a little away from his John Cale kick --- though still remaining in the basic area --- and even after all this time, still http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...wnapilago.html, our favourite exponent of experimental/noise/crazy music looks at an album made by Nico: without the VU!

1996 is under the Goofle miscroscope as he examines Swans, Tool, Beck and Ghostface Killah, among others, in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...63-2013-a.html while
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...lbum-club.html continues to rock on, as he posts his own review of The Gris Gris album, and so does Briks. Then Goof goes for his second album, the artiste of which is way too long for me to write, but it's called “Kokura” and you'll find it if you click the above link.

Justin is getting his funny bone out (stop that now, behave!) in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-endeavor.html

Ki's looking at nasty, grotesque album covers in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nal-music.html as well as King Diamond, while some of the
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...east-once.html he wants to tell us about are (um) pg.lost again (but not “Key” this time) as well as two Alesana albums. Oh, and Floyd's last one. I would agree with him; it's worth listening to. Once.

Machine is looking at Shellac, Opeth,Death Grips, SOAD, Dave Grohl and Elliot Smith in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-song-day.html
and in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...otistical.html he's laying down information about his second single.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...dern-rock.html is where you'll find Neapolitan, and this week he's telling us about The Conduits

Mondo can write poetry, and well too. In http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...istortion.html he's also continuing his John Zorn feature, with “Locus Solus”, “Naked City” and “Ganyru Island”. Also Painkiller's “Guts of a virgin” --- apparently this is also Zorn material. Nice.

There sure is a lot of work going on where Oriphiel is still http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ck-garage.html! This week he not only talks about Lee Hazelwood and The Honeys, but dips into The Shadows of Knight AND begins writing his own western! Ah, but what about that Camaro you said you'd have ready last Monday, Orph? Eh? Guy's got quite the humourous turn of phrase too: I see the embryonic beginnings of a young Urban here....More on Latin garage rock and then some revival (it says here) bands beginning with The Barracudas, while our old friend Pet_Sounds drops in with some psychedelia.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...listening.html is more a case of what he's watching this week: 10 cool Randy Rhoads videos, to tie in with the anniversary of the death of Ozzy's guitarist.

One of http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ts-sounds.html this week is Davie Allan and the Arrows, then he goes deep into the world of low-budget biker movies (all of which seem, for some inexplicable reason, to feature leather or scantily-clad nubile young ladies! Not that I'm complaining, oh no!)

Well knock me down with a wet fish! Sequoioideae is back with his second entry in over a year as http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...h-neofolk.html returns, where he's looking at Death In June. Let's hope this becomes more regular. Good stuff.

Sidewinder is up to 1995 with albums from Faith No More, Radiohead, Mr. Bungle and Fugazi figuring in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ar-1965-a.html

Continuing the countdown to the top album of 1983, Unknown Soldier has Motley Crue taking the midway slot at number five in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html while Def Leppard's classic “Pyromania” is at number four.



Going to look this week at a journal that hadn't even started when I “left” Music Banter, but which has since come on quite well. I don't even think this member was a member before I headed off, so I don't know him well at all, but let's see if we can get to know him through his journal. I'm talking about

who has been running his journal, rather cleverly titled http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...er-places.html since August. His first entry dealt with the self-titled album from Crosses, whom I don'k know but are apparently number 10 in his top ten albums of 2014, with another self-titled, this time from Nothing More, at number 9 and Afghan Whigs's “Do to the beast” at the eighth position, as August ended. September then saw Islander's “Violence and destruction” taking the number 7 slot while one of my own personal albums of the year, “Foundations of burden” by Pallbearers came in at number 6. Excellent album.

Before the number five album though, as he reached the halfway point, ContrivedNihilism decided to share with us some of his personal diary and poetry. Now, I'll admit that as my sig now says, I'm programmed to be very busy so did not get to read it, just skim through it, but what I saw was very impressive. Later, he and Frownland had a debate about the nature of dreams, which took him into October where he waxed more lyrical about his personal life, dreams and feelings. November rolled in and he decided to write about some albums that have influenced him, including Michael Jackson's “Dangerous”, Tom Petty's “Full moon fever” and Ted Nugent's “Cat scratch fever” (theme?).

Which brings us up to date. Been an interesting journey so far, man, but I think everyone is waiting for the second half of your top ten?

Time to return to

and continue our look through the beginnings of http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html

1971 began with what was to become the standard “that was the year that was” intro, reproduced below

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

1971

1971 was largely a year of consolidation, as by now bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Grand Funk Railroad were amongst the biggest in the world, with Deep Purple fast joining them. No longer did ‘heavy music’ have to forge its reputation as it had done a few years earlier and now had a much firmer stronger identity and was fast becoming a major force, displacing blues rock and rivalling the prog scene of the early 1970s. Despite being a major force, it would still remain in many people’s eyes as the final frontier in music, the unknown and the misunderstood, adjectives still very suitable today! 1971 was therefore a year of further consolidation for already established bands, as the major players would again put out pivotal works defining the genre even more. Whilst at the other end of the commercial spectrum, other bands were at the crossroads, after having failed to make the commercial breakthrough that had been required of them by their label. Some of these bands, would be bands that would steer into other musical directions in search of success and as a result hard rock and heavy metal would lose some great bands such as Lucifer’s Friend, High Tide and Stray to just name a few, whilst others such as Humble Pie sought to harden their heavy credentials even further. The whole year wasn’t just about major bands consolidating themselves and other band’s questioning whether they should be putting this type of music out or not, it was also a year that included more new arrivals on the stage, in the shape of bands such as Budgie and Nazareth, and other artists like Uriah Heep and Alice Cooper both finding their true calling throughout the year. As a year 1971 didn’t produce the quality of albums that 1970 had been blessed with and a number of the albums that missed the cut in my 1970 list, were probably stronger albums than some of the lower albums on my 1971 list, but of course there was still a lot to enjoy.

Then we headed right off into it with Budgie's self-titled debut at number 10, followed by “Nantucket sleighride” by Mountain, “Fireball” by Deep Purple and “Suicide” by Stray at numbers 9,8 and 7 respectively. Alice Cooper made his first showing, but a double one, at number 6 with “Killer” and then number 5 with “Love it to death”, while Flower Travellin' Band were back as AOTY for 1971 with “Satori” at number 4. The top three slots were shared by another band getting their first outing, Uriah Heep, with “Look at yourself” at number 3, Sabbath's “Master of reality” at number 2 and taking the top slot for this year, and the second year running, Robert Plant and the boys with the classic “Led Zeppelin IV”. Just time then for “Also Check This Out”, which featured a band called Hairy Chapter (no I am not making this up!) with their album “Can't get through”, and then all the albums that had failed to make the cut for that year, including offerings from Humble Pie, Jeff Beck, Dust and Sir Lord Baltimore. The live album section had “Free live” and also Humble Pie's “Rockin' the Filmore”, and not happy with all that work he refused to move on to 1972, opening instead a new section which looked at bands who, though heavy, leaned in other directions too, the first to come under the microscope being Wishbone Ash, then The Groundhogs and finally The Pink Fairies.

1972 arrived with “Bullet Proof” from Hard Stuff at number 10, our old friends Flower Travellin' Band at number 9 with “Made in Japan”, and taking the number eight slot, a band who had not made the cut for the previous year but obviously did for this, Dust, with “Hard attack”. Blue Oyster Cult's debut hit in at number 7 while Trapeze returned to take number 6 with “You are the music ... we're just the band”. Now Unknown Soldier introduced the idea of the “double-header”, where a band released two good albums in the one year (ah, those were the days!) and he couldn't decide between them so split the position. Therefore number 5 was occupied by Uriah Heep, with both “Demons and wizards” and “The Magician's Birthday”. He did mention that the first named album would be what he would see as the stronger of the two, so obviously “Demons and wizards” was the original choice here, but both were featured.

Another double-header at four, with both “All the young dudes” and “Brain capers” from Mott The Hoople there, and at number three an album I was not impressed with on Metal Month II, but which he chose as his AOTY for 1972, “Mournin'” by Night Sun. Sabbath's “Vol 4” took second place while top spot was awarded to Deep Purple's “Machine head”, as uncannily predicted by one Batlord at the start of the entry! Woooooo! Then we had the self-titled by Bang as an album you should “Also Check This Out” and some of the albums that didn't make the cut this year included efforts from Budgie, Jerusalem and Stray, while the Live Album section proudly presented Deep Purple's “Made in Japan”, and “Hard, heavy and a Classic” came from Humble Pie with “Smokin'” and the self-titled debut from Captain Beyond.

Another new section then, “In the shadow of Sabbath” featured bands who had been influenced by the godfathers of metal, including Lucifer Was, Iron Claw and Black Widow, as we went crashing into 1973, which I'll be checking through next week.

Time for my

which this week comes from

I was going to feature his interesting take on Floyd's last album, but this spoke more to me, mostly because it's him trying to gently promote a friend's band, not because they're his friends, but because he really likes the music. Here's what he has to say:

Originally Posted by Ki

#10: Showtime - The Horror Show



So, I'm definitely not against putting albums in this list when for one, it does have it's own place in my top 50, and two, I know the members of the band personally. I think it was back in 2012 where I first saw a good friend of mine post on Facebook that he and his band will be releasing their EP soon. I was curious so I asked them what band he was in, he then told me it was Showtime. Intrigued by the name and the possible concept of the group, I started to follow their posts via Facebook. They decided to release their EP titled "The Horror Show" in March of 2014. Upon hearing it the first time, I was so excited to message that same friend, and let him know how much I loved the album on first listen. Fortunately, that opinion still stands to this day. It's a genuine post-hardcore album, with it's own special elements thrown into it to still make it unique. It's of course mixed with the theme of being on stage and performing a play/show, hence their name. I don't spread the positivity of this album just because I know the band, I spread the positivity because I think it's great for bands that are both unsigned, and bands that want to just have a good time, can prove to make a pretty solid album. You'd listen to it and you'd never think they were just a few guys playing music in their basement. The production quality is fantastic, and it's definitely worth a listen or two, or ten.

A new section I want to introduce now is

This is where I recognise the person I believe worked the most on their journal during the week. This does not include comments or conversations, but has to be proper articles or features or reviews, or whatever they normally do. Last year, Ki would have won this hands down (and did get one of my Journey awards for his work) but you know what? He's got competition this year!

Oriphiel only started his journal recently, but already he's packed more into it than most of us do in months! This week alone he's made EIGHT updates, including an album review and the second part of his western. And I'm not talking about a few lines: these are proper, in-depth, thought-out articles. As I said, reminds me of Screen13. He's on holiday now, gone on a road trip, and actually apologised for not finishing one of his updates! It'll be hard to follow this guy's lead, I can tell you!

One more thing before I go...

This is yet another new section where I'll be pointing out a journal that has not been updated in a very long time, that has suddenly been taken up again by its author. This week it's the welcome return of Sequiodae ... Sequijdoa ... Sequeoid ... oh you know him! The tree guy! Back to regale us with an entry on Death In June, as I mentioned above, in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...h-neofolk.html. Hope it's not a flying visit! Are there flying trees? Anyway, I hope this little mention will give the people featured here a small boost and the will to keep going with their journals, but if nothing else it serves to remind us they're still here.

That's it for this week then. Bit late I know, but I had a lot to write as you can see. Back next Sunday, hopefully earlier and with more to talk about.

Till then,
remember Scrooge!
Toodles!

[Anteater]

Fantastic summation as always bud. And yes, those pieces of prose illustrating Koko's journey are my original material. At one point in the past I wanted to be a full-time novelist you know.

[Pet_Sounds]

You missed me!

[The Batlord]

I didn't know Josef had a journal.